The Chronicles of the Rayquaza Rider
by Kotone Starfire
Summary: Kana Ellis, an ordinary young woman from the region of Hoenn, has accidentally triggered the unimaginable. Her capture of a particularly rare and unusual dragon pokemon has sent the entire region careening into turmoil, and she can't help but feel responsible for the anguish of the people. Kana vows to end the senseless violence, but she is taking some drastic measures...
1. Introduction

Raymond Ellis walked up the driveway to his little house on the eastern end of Route 103, a wide grin on his face. His little girl hadn't been expecting this.

Raymond was a pokemon professor who worked in Mauville City with a group of researchers on a new pokemon discovery project, and he often did field work in New Mauville. However, he had recently come across a pokemon from the Kanto region, and he'd thought it would be just _perfect _for his little daughter. She had had a fascination with pokemon since the day she was born, but he'd been hesitant to bring one of the potentially dangerous creatures into his home when she had been a baby. But today, for his daughter's fourth birthday, he had found just the right one.

"Where's the birthday girl?" he cried, stepping into the house and looking around for his wife and daughter.

He was immediately answered with a squeal of, _"Daddy!"_

The little girl came bouncing down the hallway, a smile on her face and her big blue eyes stretched wide with excitement. She threw her arms around her father's right leg, giggling hysterically. Raymond's wife, Mina, came next. She had flour on her face—she had obviously been busy about making birthday cake.

"Kana," Raymond said, ruffling the little girl's red hair, "I have a surprise for you!"

Mina shot him a knowing look. She already knew what the surprise was, too. Raymond grinned at her, and pulled a pokeball out of his pocket.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," he said, releasing a soft, baby Eevee into the living room.

"_Eevee!" _Kana cried, bouncing up and down.

"You'll have to take good care of him, okay?" Raymond said, picking up the Eevee and placing it in Kana's arms. "He's your first pokemon, and since he's young he'll make a great training partner for you someday!"

That day came a lot sooner than the Ellis family had expected. Before Raymond knew what was happening, he came in from work one day to find Kana out in the backyard, battling a wild Wurmple with her Eevee. The young Eevee had skyrocketed to level three in as little time as one hour. By the time Kana was old enough to be officially licensed as a trainer, she already had a decently trained Espeon that loved her more than anything else in the world. The two of them did everything together—they ventured through caves, climbed mountains, explored forests, deserts, and even the watery depths of the seas. Kana added many more pokemon to her team as she grew more mature as a person and as a trainer—she traveled to the farthest reaches of the known world and acquired pokemon from all regions. And so, Kana Ellis became a pokemon master in time. She adored her pokemon as best friends and as partners. The bonds between their hearts grew until they were unbreakable, and they became a true force to be reckoned with as a team.

Then, one day, the unimaginable happened.

On a day not too long after Kana's nineteenth birthday, she had decided to spend the day honing her skills at the Sky Pillar. It had been a little rainy that day, and though the pillar was leaky, it was better than spending the day outside. Besides, many wild pokemon lived in the pillar, and they provided a wonderful training opportunity for Kana's Raichu. She was level ninety-six, and Kana was carefully training her for the soon-coming time when her power would peak at level 100. They had worked their way to an upper floor of the tower when suddenly, the cries of giant pokemon met the young trainer's ears.

Quickly calling her Raichu back to her pokeball, Kana raced to the summit of the pillar, following the sounds of the pokemon cries. Upon reaching the top, her eyes beheld a large Altaria engaged in ferocious battle with a magnificent shiny Rayquaza. A nest full of Swablu eggs was nearby. Stricken with awe, Kana immediately threw her only Master Ball at the Rayquaza, wanting nothing more than to tame it, train it, and add it to her collection of trusted partners.

But all was not well.

Upon inspecting the Rayquaza, Kana happened to find around one of his thin wrists what appeared to be a sort of tracking device. Thinking nothing of it, she removed the device, assuming that perhaps it had been attached by a research team, much like the one her father worked for. But little did Kana know that the device had actually alerted a powerful individual that his precious shiny Rayquaza had been captured by an ordinary trainer. Upon receiving this shocking news, the infamous leader of the mighty Team Ozone immediately sent troops to the Hoenn region, demanding that they locate the pokemon that he so deeply desired to own for himself. Trainers were apprehended without mercy in the streets—Ozone members ordered people to send out all of their pokemon for inspection. Those trainers who refused had their pokemon stolen from them, were murdered, or both. Terror gripped the region of Hoenn as the search for the current owner of the legendary ebony dragon left a blood-soaked path in its wake.

Kana couldn't help but feel responsible for all of this. So she knew she had to take some kind of action.

She kept the fact that she had the Rayquaza a secret from everybody she knew—even from her parents. She discreetly traveled to Blackthorn City in Johto to a little shop she knew of that sold high quality dragon-riding armor, and bought for herself a really nice set made of silver. She spent a lot of money on some technology, including a headset that could be worn under her helmet and some tiny earpieces for her pokemon to wear.

Kana resolved to stop the senseless killing, no matter what it took. And she wasn't going to let the leader of Team Ozone have his way.

Thus, the Rayquaza Rider of Hoenn came to be.


	2. Chapter 1

My name is Kana Ellis, and I am the infamous Rayquaza Rider.

It's a really long and complicated story explaining how I got to where I am today, and I won't go into it here. However, I will say that I've been up to my old antics lately. For the past couple of years, things haven't gotten much better. I hardly sleep at night anymore. Team Ozone is so active nowadays that I have somewhere to be almost every other night. I have to show up and stop them dead in their tracks—else the telecasters on TV won't have anything juicy to discuss on the morning news the next day. I'll appear on the scene of the crime, toss out some tough pokemon, have Rayquaza shoot up an impressive column of fire, and they'll all be heading for the hills. I do what I have to do. If that means killing off some of the Team Ozone members, then that's what it means. I didn't choose for it to be this way on that fateful day when I captured that Rayquaza—I was naïve then. Now, things are different. I don't really care what people think; as a matter of fact they all are convinced that I'm some twenty-five-year-old guy who sits in front of the TV and doesn't ever get out because all his pokemon are already level 100 anyway. That's far from who I really am, though.

Today is just like any other day—I'm sitting in front of my computer at home, taking a rest from my training earlier this morning. Alakazam is sitting on the beanbag chair next to me, Espeon is curled up on my bed, and Blaziken is eating an Oran berry sandwich on the other side of the room. In the afternoons, I will usually spend my time getting on Team Ozone's top-secret website, which I had easily managed to find on the Internet, and I hack into their email communications so that I can figure when and where their next attack will be. That's how I usually keep up with them—I can't believe that nobody has figured out yet how I manage to track Ozone's activity. It's pretty simple, really; if you have a really talented Alakazam.

I sigh, glancing over at the west wall of my bedroom where all my plaques are hanging. They are all different, and inscribed upon each of them is a congratulatory note commemorating my induction into the Pokemon Hall of Fame. One of them is from the Indigo Plateau, between the Kanto and Johto regions. One is from Sinnoh. One of them is from right here in Hoenn, my home region. The last one is from the faraway region of Unova. My eyes linger on that one for just a little while longer; I can't help but wonder if I will ever get the chance to go back to Unova. There are still pokemon for me to meet and capture there that I can't find anywhere else. But Unova is so far away….either way, I have really fond memories of my adventures there, and I do have _some _Unovian pokemon…

A little bored, I click over to where I've saved the Ozone website to my bookmarks in my web browser, and once I arrive at the login page, I say, "Okay, Alakazam. Let's have the password."

Their password changes automatically every twenty-four hours. Only the top Ozone officials have access to the password changes—the accounts are all very secure. But I've specially trained my Alakazam. He knows well what he's doing, and as of yet, he hasn't failed me yet.

He gets up and bends over the keyboard, gently pressing the keys with his little fingers until he's typed in a random combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, special symbols, and spaces. Then he pushes the "Enter" key.

"Thanks, buddy," I say as the title screen comes up and I see that there is new email correspondence to read.

I click over to the inboxes of the account owner and the Team Ozone leader—I _still _don't know what his name is, by the way. I've been trying to figure it out for ages, but even in private email correspondence, officials never actually write the team leader's name. I also can't seem to figure out where he is located. As frustrating as this is, for now I guess all I can do is what I do best, and that is intercept Team Ozone wherever they decide to strike. And speaking of striking, I see that the owner of the account I had accessed is planning to infiltrate Mauville City later tonight, since he heard that they kept a stash of Master Balls in one of the labs there.

I can't help but inhale sharply as I read the messages. _That's where my dad works!_

Quickly, I skim back through them again. I can't believe they are attacking so close to home. What next? Will they be banging on our front door, demanding to see all of our pokemon as well? I can't let that happen. _I _am the one who has the shiny Rayquaza—it's _me _they're after. If they figure out that I am the Rayquaza Rider…there is no telling what they'll do to me and my family.

I turn to the pokemon, and say, "This is a little too close for comfort, you guys…"

Espeon cocks his head to the side, lowering his ears. Blaziken pinches off another small piece of sandwich and pushes it back into his beak, giving me a worried look.

I sigh. "We're busy tonight too, it looks like."

I get up and walk over to my bedside table and pull out the little drawer on it. Inside, there's a random scattering of pokeballs.

"Espeon, will you and Blaziken go with me tonight?" I ask as I grab Glalie's pokeball, along with Swampert's and Steelix's.

Espeon and Blaziken smile and nod at me. They're always eager to accompany me on one of my wild adventures. I reach into my jacket pocket and carefully run my fingers over the Master Ball that I keep there. Rayquaza is probably getting hungry by now. It's almost his dinner time. Glancing over my shoulder to make sure my bedroom door is locked, I release him into my room and wave my arms at him, signaling that he should be quiet.

His long body takes up about half of my bedroom, but he usually curls up beside the bed comfortably when he eats his meals.

"Hang on, buddy," I tell him, smiling. "Mom made steak tonight. I'll go down to the kitchen and get you some. You're going to need all the energy you can get for later this evening."

* * *

I feel a slight twinge, right on the side of my cheek. At first, I don't move a muscle, because I'm not sure what it is and I'm still half dreaming, anyway. But the second time I feel it, I realize that it's Blaziken's talon, poking me awake. I throw the covers back and shoot a quick glance at the bright red numbers on the digital clock next to me. 2:08 A.M. The timing is perfect.

My feet hit the floor without making a single sound. This is just part of my routine now. I reach over, grab two empty pokeballs, and call Blaziken and Espeon into them. I race over to my closet and throw open the doors, diving to the bottom of the piles of clothes were I kept my armor hidden. It had been the finest set of dragon-riding armor I'd been able to find for sale that day at the Dragon's Lair in Johto—I don't even _care _to think about how much money I spent on it. But I don't care. It's well worth it if it's going to protect me out there. I dress hastily, throwing a dark jacket over my layer of upper body armor and setting some pokeballs in my belt. I pull on my metal-plated boots and snatch Rayquaza's ball off my desk. I pin my scarlet hair up in a large clip to keep it from flying out of my helmet. I affix my headset and microphone on my head, then throw my helmet on over that. After adjusting my visor, yanking my gloves on, and checking to make sure I had a good stock of items in my backpack, I decide I'm ready to go.

_I really should make better preparations before I go to bed…one of these days in my haste, I'm going to forget to check something before I leave…_

After carefully scanning the tree line outside my window, I slowly push it open and let Rayquaza out. He appears as he always does, with his head angled in toward the windowsill so I can climb onto his back safely. I shoot a glance back into the house, making sure my bedroom door is closed, and then I reach for Rayquaza's jet-black horns and pull myself up onto his back. He doesn't move—he knows to wait for my signal. Once I've got a good grip on his horns, I give him a tap in the side of his neck with my right foot, letting him know he's clear for takeoff. Silently, he veers sharply away from the house and soars upward into the starlit sky.

To get to the site of the attack, we don't have to fly far tonight. There is a part of my heart that sinks, knowing that the flight will be quick. I love nothing more than to fly on Rayquaza; but it's something that I can't do whenever I like, for obvious reasons. I lean into the wind, and I close my eyes for a moment and pretend that I'm flying on my own wings. I can't feel anything other than the wind rushing past my ears and the slight chill of night air around me.

But then, I realize I've got to snap back to reality. I open my eyes and I see Mauville coming into view below. I nudge Rayquaza, signaling to him to head toward the city. We begin a very gradual descent, and as we get closer to town I begin to carefully scan the streets for any unusual activity. There is no telling if Team Ozone is already here or not—I'm just going to have to trust that I have beaten them here. I am pretty sure that they aren't supposed to attack until around 3:00, but…if they have changed their plans…as they are sometimes known to do…

Silently, we ease into town. I lower Rayquaza into one of the streets and glance around cautiously, wondering if anyone is hiding out nearby, waiting to ambush me. Just as I begin to think that I truly _have _arrived first, I suddenly hear shouting from almost immediately behind me.

"Oh, _no! _IT'S HIM!"

I whirl Rayquaza around, hardly noticing the three Team Ozone members below who are staring up at me in awe and terror. Without thinking twice about it, I give Rayquaza the signal to randomly select one of them to devour. I cling to his horns as he hastily dives for the man who had cried out in the first place; I close my eyes as I feel my pokemon's jaws snap just mere feet beneath me. Then, I give him a swift kick with my right foot, signaling him again, and he knows what to do. I hold on tight as he throws his head back and sends a blazing column of fire skyward, the crimson blood still glittering on his fangs.

_Well, we've made our entrance. Now comes the storm._

I hear another shout below, this time a woman's voice, crying out, "Quick! Run! It's the Rider!" as I urge Rayquaza back toward the ground, trying to figure where the rest of Team Ozone is gathered. I end up following the sound of her voice. It had come from the other side of the building I had landed beside, so I quickly flew in that direction. Sure enough, on my way around the building Ozone members come into view. They're panicking now—I can see it on each and every face. I give Rayquaza's left horn a good squeeze, and he launches a powerful Waterfall attack down the entire street, sweeping a lot of the people away. Some avoid the current, however, and begin making a quick escape down a narrow side street. Hastily, I swerve after them. The man who is leading the escaping group skids to a halt suddenly upon seeing Rayquaza's shadow, and he suddenly hurls out one of his pokemon. It's a very high-leveled Cacturne.

I snatch Glalie's pokeball up and throw it, praying that I had remembered to turn on my headset.

"Glalie?" I ask as she appears on the battlefield. "Can you hear me?"

She glances up at me and nods once, her entire body shaking and her blue eyes filled with determination.

I breathe a sigh of relief, shaking my head and wishing that I could just yell out commands to my pokemon without need of a headset. But if I did that, then Team Ozone would get to hear my voice…

Readjusting my grip on Rayquaza's horns, I say quietly, "Okay, Glalie. You can handle this Cacturne."

I had been about to go on, but right at that moment another pokemon appears, and another. A Houndoom takes the field, followed by a Tentacruel, each commanded by the other Team Ozone members nearby. I inhale sharply, exasperated.

"We've got to work fast," I say. "Quickly, Ice Beam on the Cacturne!"

Without hesitation, the freezing ray erupts from Glalie's throat. However, the Cacturne is already in the air, spiraling toward her packing a Needle Arm move powerful enough to shatter bricks and concrete. Our Ice Beam barely grazes Cacturne's side, but it's enough to bring him crashing down. His Needle Arm lands inches from Glalie's right horn.

"Spin out of the way, _now!" _I cry out, seeing that Houndoom's trainer is trying to take us by surprise from behind.

Conveniently, Glalie is pretty fast. She dodges the Flamethrower that Houndoom had fired a half a second before, and instead of colliding with its intended target it ends up frying Cacturne, who is still lying on the ground. But Glalie isn't quick enough to dodge Tentacruel's Poison Jab. It strikes her multiple times in the face, as she spun to the left of the field and practically landed right in the middle of the enemy's line of fire.

I cross my fingers. _Is she poisoned?_

No.

_Thank Arceus._

"Glalie, get up," I say, watching her hover on the spot a little and shake off the sudden harshness of Tentacruel's attack. "Now, Crunch. On that Tentacruel."

Immediately Glalie sinks her teeth into the jellyfish, but Houndoom hauls her off of its teammate quickly. She doesn't have time to do much damage. At least Cacturne has fainted and his trainer has fled the scene—that's one less thing I have to worry about.

I can tell by this time that Glalie is getting tired, and there's not too much more of this that she can take. She's outnumbered, but I know she has really good aim, especially when she's injured and her health is at a critical level. So I decide the best thing for her to do would be to attempt her ultimate move and just get _rid _of these guys. I don't have time to waste here. I have other Ozone members to send home tonight as well, you know.

"Glalie," I say softly, "Let them have it. We've got to wrap this up, already."

I quickly grab Rayquaza's Master Ball and call him into it, falling the short distance to the ground and landing softly on my feet. I don't want him to be out to experience the extreme ice attack that's about to take place. Icy shards surround me; I look up just in time to see a flurry of them fly at the defending pokemon, surrounding them, encasing them in blocks of ice. I smile to myself. Glalie always performed so beautifully—it's two one-hit knockouts for us.

"Nice Sheer Cold," I say, congratulating her on landing the hit. "Now, take a rest."

I call her back to her pokeball and promptly send Rayquaza back out. The two Ozone members are astounded; they can't believe their precious pokemon could have been taken down so easily.

_As a matter of fact, it's not that easy. No one could have pulled that off without having put in years upon years of rigorous training time._

As I turn to head toward one of the pokemon research labs, I hear one of the guys below call after me, but I don't have the time to waste listening. They'll leave. They don't really have another choice—they've lost against me in battle, so it's either leave, or stay here and die. It doesn't really matter, because I doubt they know anything worth killing them for, anyway. For now, I've got to get to the labs. I'm not sure if that first match held me up long enough for Ozone to have the time to escape with any of those Master Balls, but either way, I've got to find out.

Without further ado, I signal to Rayquaza to blast one of the walls in as soon as we get to the first laboratory. We crash through the wall, and I am a little surprised to find Team Ozone members everywhere.

_How did they get in so easily? And there are so many of them!_

"Shiny Rayquaza!" I hear one of them shout. "Quick, _run or fight!"_

Some flee immediately. A few others send out pokemon, but I notice that all of them are at least one part flying-type; I suppose that's because they want to be able to fly up to where I am and take me out. But I can't help but smirk. Haven't they forgotten that I taught my Rayquaza Thunderbolt?

Sure enough, they all mount their pokemon and try to fly up to meet me, like fools. There are about five of them total, but I decide that a well-placed Thunderbolt should be able to handle all of them. I nudge Rayquaza, and he gets the signal. The lightning flies from his throat, lighting up the entire room. A couple of the birds crash immediately. A third spirals out of control as his rider dares to leap to the ground for safety. I hear him scream as he lands awkwardly below—he's obviously hurt from the fall, but I don't have time to stop. Two more birds are heading straight for me. One is a sturdy-looking Pidgeot, and the other is an exceptionally fast Skarmory.

I dart back outside, planning to Thunderbolt the Pidgeot first. That Skarmory is going to be hard to hit—I can already tell. But just as I am setting up the attack, suddenly both of them turn and flee, the expressions that passed across their riders' faces incredibly hard to read. A bit confused, I glance around, hoping that there isn't something behind me about to take me by surprise. At first, I see nothing. But then, the entire sky lights up, and my eyes stretch wide as another bird appears, this one all ablaze with the power of the sun itself. Even more shocking, it has a rider. I realize immediately that this individual, whoever it is, is a real force to be reckoned with; most likely a top official of Team Ozone. It's not every day that you happen to see a random Ozone member who commands a Moltres.

I grip Rayquaza's horns, preparing for aerial combat. The Moltres rockets toward me, wings blazing and huge talons outstretched. I signal him to launch a Waterfall at the firebird, but he misses terribly. We have no choice but to flee. I know if I try to attack again, we'll certainly be shredded by those talons.

I'm not really sure how long I lead the chase through the streets of Mauville. I happen to notice that some of the residents of the town have woken up and turned their lights on in their homes, and I'm pleased to see that none of them dare come outside. The last thing I need to worry about is innocent people to protect, _as well as _pokemon to fight. I dodge a few incredibly well-aimed blasts of fire, thankful for my total awareness skills hinting me at when Moltres was firing an attack. I've never had to flee from a Team Ozone member before, and through my sudden fear I find myself wondering exactly who this rider was. I glance over my shoulder, and I realize that I can't get a good look at him. He's wearing some kind of hood over his face.

It doesn't matter. Whoever it is, he obviously isn't afraid of me, and he's letting me know it.

Suddenly, on the edge of town, Rayquaza is hit. I feel him veer toward the ground below, spiraling out of control as he screams in pain. I look ahead, frantically searching for a safe place to land, and I happen to see that we are right on the edge of Route 118, and there is a body of water ahead. I signal to him that he should try to crash there, if he can help it. Not only will it help his burns feel better but it will also be impossible for the firebird behind us to follow.

We head for the water, and I brace myself, gripping his horns hard. The impact will be icy and wet.

I hold my breath as we hit the water, a little surprised that it's not quite as shocking as I had expected. I suppose it must be my armor providing some protection from it. Thankful for my visor, I open my eyes underwater and fumble for Rayquaza's Master Ball. Hastily I call him back into it and send out Swampert. After successfully grabbing onto his back, we resurface, and a grin spreads across my face. I can't wait to see the Moltres rider. He won't know what to do with himself now!

But I look around, and I don't see him anywhere.

I pause for a moment. Where has he gone? Has he given up the chase, realizing that diving into a body of water with a fire-type pokemon would be suicide? Swampert fidgets, and starts paddling uneasily beneath me, his radar fins turning this way and that on his head. At first I think he's just nervous, but then I realize that he's being slowly pulled to the left by a swift current.

I look behind me, and to my horror, I realize that right under my nose a colossal maelstrom has formed in the water, so huge that it stretches almost all the way across the little inlet.

"Swampert, fight it!" I cry, knowing that if he tries, he can escape the brutal tugging of the currents.

Swampert struggles violently, and even so, we are almost pulled to the center of the swirling vortex before we manage to Dive out of its reach. Protected from the water by the power of my pokemon's Dive, I inhale sharply. Just barely visible at the heart of the whirlpool is the Moltres rider, only now, he is astride the most mighty Kingdra that I believe I've ever seen—there's no doubt, it's _got _to be no less than level 100. I signal to Swampert that he should shoot a torrent of mud into the whirlpool; that might be enough to interrupt it. His Mud Shot fires slowly due to the water, but it eventually catches in the whirlpool and forces it to collapse. However, Kingdra and rider are not finished yet. They explode out of the swirling mud and water at me, catching me off guard and attacking my Swampert head-on with a furious headbutt. The impact knocks the breath out of me, and throws me out of the water and up onto the bank outside. I land awkwardly, shivering from the sudden cold. Swampert struggles to his feet, shaking off the shock from the impact, just as Kingdra and its trainer are surging toward us, riding on a giant wave.

"Swampert," I say, "stop that wave! _Surf!"_

Swampert leaps forward valiantly, sending up a giant wave of his own. The two waves crash in the middle of the inlet, sending pokemon and trainer caught in the middle flying toward the shore. Kingdra lands with a soft _splat _in the mud that had washed up near the shore. Unscathed by the impact of the landing, it wriggles its way back into the shallow water. The rider crashes on the grass near me—hard. He doesn't move.

I glance back at Mauville City as I approach the mysterious trainer with caution. It seems that Ozone has left; there is no more unusual activity that I can see. I can only hope that they have. But I have to be sure that this particular trainer is dead. I've never in my life had so much trouble battling just one Ozone member—if _all _Ozone executives are this powerful, I honestly don't even care to think of the terrors that I would be dealing with if I faced the Ozone leader himself. I don't care to face this trainer again, either. Ever. His battle style is unforgiving, and I can even see in his pokemon that they aren't happy with him. I would be doing them a favor by killing this guy—they could all return to the wild and be free to find better trainers who will love them and care for them.

At first, I'm afraid to get too close to the guy. I can't tell if he's breathing or not, though, so I really don't have a choice. I drop to my knees beside him, push the hood out of his face, and I'm a little surprised at what I see.

This guy doesn't seem to be that much older than I am. He's got a head full of scruffy black hair, shoulder-length, with a little bit of natural curl to it. He's pale-complexioned, and judging by the shadows around his eyes it doesn't seem that he's been sleeping well lately.

Suddenly, I realize that his chest is just barely rising and falling, and I leap up immediately once I see that he's still alive. After that, Espeon appears beside me, choosing to leap right out of his pokeball. His expression is urgent. I don't know what he's so upset about, but I don't doubt him. I call Swampert back, and turn my attention to Espeon. He knows something is about to happen—I can tell by looking at the fibers in his fur.

Keeping my voice quiet as I speak into my headset, I say, "Espeon, I trust you. Do what you will."

He spins around without warning, glowing bright pink with his psychic power, and leaps into my arms. I catch him, caught up in his Teleport just as the man on the ground beneath me springs to his feet and tries to grab me.

* * *

I collapse on my bed, Espeon in my arms. My entire body is shaking as I pull my helmet off and toss it over the edge of the bed. My hair has fallen down, once again. It does that every single time. Annoyed and exhausted, I carefully pull off my armor and my headset and throw all of it over behind the bed. It can stay there until I wake up; nobody will notice it, and I'll get up first thing tomorrow and return it all to its hiding place. I rub Espeon on the head, quietly thanking him for appearing when he did, and then I collapse in the bed. I'm certain I'll be asleep in no less than three minutes tonight.


	3. Chapter 2

I drag myself down the stairs at about 10:50 or so, still not caught up on sleep from last night. I know if I don't get out of bed soon though, my parents are going to start worrying about me again. I wished I had the money to get my own house already. I've been saving up for it for quite some time, but I'm still quite a few thousand dollars short. If I had my own house, though, it would be so much easier for me to be the Rayquaza Rider. It is stressful, difficult, and tiring attempting to keep up this façade of being a normal trainer in front of my parents when I'm out "saving the world" pretty much every other night.

I manage to plop down at the kitchen table, flip the television on, and pour myself some cereal.

"—the Rayquaza Rider of Hoenn, who thwarted yet another attack last night in the city of Mauville," the newcaster had been saying. "Though we aren't sure what Ozone was after, thanks to the Rider, the sensitive documents and items in the Mauville laboratories were untouched by any Ozone members. However, Mauville gym leader Wattson isn't too pleased about the damage that the battles caused around the city…"

I can't even listen anymore. They're going to do what they always do. They'll praise me—talk about how awesome I am and how much they appreciate me running Team Ozone off. Then, they'll have huge debates about whether I should be considered a good guy or a bad guy. Am I a hero or a murderer? Protector of the people or destroyer of city property? I roll my eyes.

I hate the media.

About that time, I hear someone coming. I get up quickly and put my dishes in the sink. I'm not so sure that I want them to know that I have just rolled out of bed and eaten breakfast.

"Kana?"

That's my mother's voice.

I turn around to find that my mom has entered the kitchen behind me. I smile and reply, "Hi, Mom."

"How long have you been up?" she asks.

I hesitate a little before saying, "About an hour."

She chuckles. "You've been awfully quiet this morning!"

"Been messing around on the computer," I say.

Mom walks across the kitchen and picks up the cereal box and the morning newspaper from the table.

"Before you leave, could you put the Skitty out?" she asks, glancing over at the Skitty that lives in our house, more as a pet than an actively battling pokemon.

I walk over and pick up Skitty, saying, "I'm not going out today."

Mom gives me a surprised look, shrugs, and then turns back to her work. I can't help it. There's no way I can go out training this morning—I'm too busy thinking about the events of last night. The Moltres rider finds his way back into my mind. _What kind of trainer is he, anyway? _The kind that I wish I had killed while I had the chance. I can't shake the feeling that he and I are going to meet again.

I open the back door and carefully place Skitty on the doorstep. She spins around in a circle, happily chasing her furry pink tail before racing off into the backyard. I watch her for a moment, wondering how nice it would be to be as carefree as she is. Then I turn back into the house and climb the stairs back to my bedroom.

Going back to sleep sounds really good right about now, but I know if I do that, my parents might think I'm sick. That's the last thing I need. I sigh, flopping down in front of the computer and turning it on. I can already tell that today is going to be unproductive. Espeon is still curled up on my pillow, yawning from time to time and blinking his eyes at me, almost as if he feels the same way.

I let out Alakazam and click over to Team Ozone's website again without really thinking about it. It's just a part of my daily routine. Though I'm not sure what I'm going to do after I finish checking the accounts, I figure I might as well give it a look. I can never tell what I might find in these messages. It might be the one thing I need to figure out where Ozone's leader is—and _that _is the piece of information that I've been searching for this entire time, anyway.

"Okay, Alakazam," I say, getting up from the computer and letting him step over to the keyboard.

He closes his eyes as he marches up to the keyboard, and as he's thinking about what the current password might be, I walk over to my vanity on the other side of the room. My hair clip and my headset are lying right there on top where I'd carelessly tossed them this morning after I'd climbed out of bed. I don't suppose that matters—neither of those items is very conspicuous. However, I'm not sure how many times Mom comes in here and pokes around, so I pull out one of my drawers and place my headset inside, just to get it out of view.

About that time, I hear Alakazam cry out in horror.

I spin around, not sure what the problem can possibly be, but I see that Espeon is standing up as well, his neck craned toward the computer and his eyes stretched wide. Alakazam has jumped back, an expression of shock on his face. I race over hastily, and I see that upon logging into the website, a window has popped up on the screen that I've never seen before.

The text has a bold typeface, and the lettering is done in black and red.

**UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS**

**You have not received permission to access this website. A security breach has been recorded and notifications have been sent to site administration.**

**Your IP address and location have been logged.**

I can't believe it. It's been two years. Two _entire years, _and Ozone hasn't taken a precaution like this before. At first, I don't know what to do. Once I close the window, it seems that my computer is crashing. I don't know if it's going to shut down, restart, or just kick me off of the website; but honestly, my computer isn't my biggest concern right now. The thing that worries me the most is the fact that now, they have my location. They _will _suspect that I am the Rider—what other leads do they have? Surely it would make sense that the Rayquaza Rider would be hacking into their personal email accounts.

Then, that leaves the question:

_How long will it take them to get here?_

"Alakazam!" I shout, "Quickly, get inside your pokeball!"

He disappears into his pokeball without question. I grab my laptop and throw it into its case faster than I ever had before. I run to my closet, throw open the doors, and snatch up one of my big traveling backpacks. I stuff my armor into it, along with the rest of the things I need to become the Rayquaza Rider, should the need arise. I run across the room and start grabbing up all of my pokeballs from the drawer in my desk, shoving them down into my backpack as quickly as possible. I throw all of these things on my bed, and then I run out the door and downstairs to Mom. I don't know what I'm going to say to her, I only know I've got to tell her _something._

She's in the living room with the television on, the volume turned down low as she's reading a magazine.

"M-Mom," I stammer, exasperated. "I…I…"

I struggle to find the words. I don't know how to say that Team Ozone might be headed this way right now.

"Is everything all right?" she asks, seeming a bit worried. "I thought I heard some noise coming from upstairs…"

In this very moment, I realize that the less she knows, the better off she'll be. I try as hard as I can to compose myself. This is for my mother's safety.

I slowly take a deep breath, and say, "Everything's fine. However, I've decided to spend the rest of the day out training. I'll probably be gone long into the night. Could you do me a favor, and go down into the basement and see if you can find that little cooler for me? I've got to pack lunch and dinner."

She gives me a questioning look, as if trying to figure why I had so suddenly decided to do that.

"Well, if you're sure…" she mutters, putting her magazine down and getting up.

"I'm positive," I reply, trying not to sound like I'm rushing her. "There's no telling where it is—you'll have to look for it. Once I finish getting my meals together, I'll come help you."

I don't stop to make sure she's safely in the basement before I take off back upstairs, running as fast as I can. Dad will be home any minute. What will I do about him? I don't have time to think about things like that. I snatch my jacket off of my bed, grab my computer and my backpack, and just as I'm getting ready to run out into the hallway I hear a pounding coming from the front door of the house.

_They're here._

_Damn!_

Throwing everything down again, I spin back into my room, calling out, "Crobat! Flygon!"

Immediately the two pokemon appear. They aren't sure what's going on, but I can tell that they sense my urgency. I throw open my bedroom window.

"Quickly, both of you," I say, pointing out the window. "There are some Team Ozone representatives here. I don't care what you do—just make them leave!"

Both of them shoot out the window and head toward the front of the house. For a moment, I just stand there at the window. I can't let Team Ozone see me—I can't have them suspecting that I am the Rayquaza Rider, mainly because I'm not the only one that would be at risk. There's no telling what would happen to my family, my friends, other people around me; if they thought that it might be me.

Suddenly, Flygon and Crobat reappear, not a scratch on them anywhere. They nonchalantly glide into my room, giving me funny looks.

Before I can even question them, I hear the door open downstairs. I race out into the hallway, motioning for my pokemon to follow me. I skid to a halt at the top of the stairs, and I can't help but breathe a sigh of relief when I see that it's my father, home from work.

"Kana…?" he asks. "Where's your mom? And…is everything all right?"

For a few intense seconds, I just stand there, unable to say anything. Then, I happen to notice out the window directly behind him, there are about twelve large flying-type pokemon heading straight for the house—fast.

_Okay. Now that really IS them._

"Mom is in the basement…." I say carefully. "You should go join her. She's looking for something and she could probably use some help."

He stands there and looks at me for a moment before shrugging and placing his briefcase on the little desk beside the front door. Out of the corner of my eye I see him head in the direction of the basement door, but I can't tear my eyes away from the incoming pokemon. As soon as I hear the basement door close behind my father, I run down the stairs and start turning all the lights off and closing all the blinds. Crobat and Flygon help too, and we have the entire first floor finished in just a few seconds. We race back up the stairs and do the same thing. By this time I'm exhausted, but I can't stop now. I come up with another idea, hastily calling Glalie and Alakazam back out of their pokeballs. I run back to my room, throw my backpack over my shoulders, climb onto Flygon's back, and send the other three back around to the front of the house.

Flygon glances over her shoulder at me, and I say, "I don't care where you go, as long as it's anywhere but here."

With that, she shoots out the window and we soar off into the sky. Crobat, Alakazam, and Glalie work well together—I am certain that they'll be able to deal with Team Ozone. Maybe not without taking a few considerably damaging hits, but at least this way, my parents will be safe and so will I. I'm not sure where Flygon and I are headed now, but I know that Alakazam will be able to find us, no matter where we end up.

However, I can't help but worry about them. They'll be injured after the fight. Will they be able to make it okay without me for maybe a day or two?


End file.
